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      03-03-2021, 02:21 PM   #7
LogicalApex
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Quote:
Originally Posted by celsdogg View Post
I think it will be worse than petrolheads think. Electric and completely autonomous driving cars (level 5) are nearly (or will be soon) one in the same.

There are performance electric cars that are fast as all hell that you can drive, but I think of it as a clever ruse to lure the petrolhead populous into electric cars. Once everyone is used to that, the autonomy will keep getting better and the desire to drive yourself will wane for all but the most diehard. Once it is all said and done, the performance electric car will only be around for a short time in history.
I see it differently from you here. I see the improvement of self driving tech to be a net win or enthusiasts and not a net loss. I am not convinced we'll see Level 5 tech yet, but that's another story...

For the bulk of drivers driving is a chore they'd rather not deal with. It is why you see them fumbling around with their phones while driving and doing anything they can to focus on anything else. For those people increased self driving capabilities will remove them from the driving population while creating a lot more "predictable" drivers on the road for the rest of us. No more random lane changes because they dropped their phone and reached for it!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Germanauto View Post
I alluded to this in another thread, but the EVs I've driven are so sterile feeling. They'll accelerate fast sure, but the lack of sound means there is no drama or visceral feedback to add to the sensation of speed. They have no gear selectors or flappy paddles to play around with, and are incredibly heavy. The ultimate objective of these vehicles, besides being zero-emissions, is to remove the driver from the driving experience. No sensations, pindrop silence, autonomous technology, no buttons/switchgear. All "feedback" from the driving experience is virtualy eliminated.

For the average person who views automobiles as an appliance they are great, but for most enthusiasts they leave much to be desired. After driving a friend's Model 3 the other day I hopped into a Macan S, which obviously is no sports car, but it was such a thrilling vehicle to drive in comparison. Beautiful noises when accelerating, a proper shifter, and tight steering at even low speeds with proper road feel. I went from a cold clinical car into one bursting with emotion in comparison.
This is just due to what you grew up with more than anything. There will be performance EV cars that will bring a lot to the table and offer a great driving experience. It will be a different experience than driving a permanence ICE car and it will evolve over time, but that doesn't mean it will be a universally worse experience.

It reminds me of the shift from Desktop computers to Smartphones. People laughed at the idea that more people would use them over traditional computers and even more laughed that you'd be able to do the same tasks on them that you can on a traditional computer. Fast forward to today and the smartphone is the primary computer for many and can perform many intense computing tasks faster than traditional desktop computers.

Even for ICE performance cars they've sort of peaked. You can only add so much HP to the equation before it becomes useless. You see it all the time here where users complain that these new cars with HP numbers into the stratosphere are "sterile" and "boring" compared to cars with a fraction of the power from ages ago. The reality is those cars are just different. I'm sure the same would have been true if we had these boards in the 70s and you'd have people with their 1940s cars lamenting on how bland those cars were compared to what they grew up with!
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